One gets the feeling that New Line is hiding Blade 2 just a little bit.  And I don’t quite understand why.   When I sat down in the screening room on Tuesday night, I had forgotten that Guillermo del Toro had directed the film.  I had seen his name attached repeatedly, but New Line isn’t selling del Toro.  But when I realized, once again, that he was behind the camera, I started thinking that the combination of a successful Blade 2 and the greatly underseen The Devil’s Backbone both hitting theaters within four months was a Soderbergh/Scott-like achievement.  IF Blade 2 was a good movie…

I would have to say that calling Blade 2 “good” would be to significantly understate the truth.  I really enjoyed Blade, even if it had flaws here and there.  But with Blade 2, Guillermo del Toro steps up into the top group of action directors working today.  And I’d be the first person to tell you that Mimic was a muddled piece of crap that didn’t work on any level.  But add to Blade 2 the high quality, sophisticated ghost story of The Devil’s Backbone and one must conclude that del Toro may be the second best genre director working, just behind Bob Zemeckis, but ahead of Rodriguez and Raimi and in tight competition with Peter Jackson. 

I can’t believe I am writing it, but Blade 2 is the first great movie of 2002.  Before you all feel compelled to buy tickets, this film is absolutely not for everyone.  It is loaded with hardcore violence and a surprising amount of material that is more of the horror genre... which is a del Toro signature, it seems – mixing genre.  He did it with The Devil’s Backbone too… which again, I suggest that everyone who likes genre films sees, if they have a chance. 

So why is New Line soft selling?  Well, for one thing, they have a critic proof movie.  The crowd for Blade should all show up this weekend.  But more so, I am sad to say, The Devil’s Backbone underperformed this December.  Sony Classics, to whom I am indebted for their help with the Miami Film Festival, allowed a film that I consider pretty commercial – even though it’s in Spanish – to get lost in the holiday shuffle. 

But here’s my idea.  And maybe they already have had it and maybe that’s why they never got past 35 screens… re-release the film next month, and $100 million from now, as “From The Director of Blade 2.”  Here’s a quote for the campaign.  David Poland, formerly important critic, says, “The Devil’s Backbone has all the chills of The Others, but a lot more thrills.” 

Anyway, back to the movie at hand.  Del Toro manages to capture the look and feel of a comic book better than any other filmmaker ever has.  But the great thing about it is that it’s not self-conscious about the effort.  The colors are extreme, but the tones are muted enough that it never feels like a gimmick.  There are harsh angles, but it never looks like the old (and glorious) Batman TV series.  Del Toro uses a lot of background angles, both in the sets and in the lighting, which really load the frame.  His camera movement also tends to move, at times, as though going from frame to frame in a comic.  But again, not very self-consciously.  Like the best directors, as rich as the frames are, it never feels like he’s calling attention to his own work.

David Goyer’s script is even better for this film than for the original.  He manages, with the director, to introduce a lot of characters, but never leaves us guessing about who’s who.  Even though there are twists and turns, you never get those “Aha!” moments, where you expect a musical sting to smash you in the ear.  The simplest version – a new strain of super vampire forces the regular vampires that Blade hunts to work with Blade to save everyone, human and vampire, from a seemingly unstoppable force – pretty much takes you through the movie.  Yet, there are lots of twists. 

And the images… del Toro takes the wire work/CG/chop socky thing to some new places.  The way he shoots and cuts, you always feel like you know where you are in space (a problem in Mimic), even while dozens of people/creatures are fighting at the same time.  He also mixes media really nicely.  If you want to get a sense of what Spider-Man’s CG may look like, an early sequence in Blade 2 gives you what may be a good preview.  There is some full-body animation later in the picture as well, but del Toro uses it mostly in an early fight between Blade and two masked and body-suited opponents.  They swing around on a lot of stuff, a lot like the stuff in the Spider-Man trailer.  And, like that trailer, you can tell it’s CG.  But del Toro mixes in enough live stunts and real shots to make it work.  You’re never with pure CG for more than a couple of seconds.  The work was our of Phil Tippett’s studio.  Spider-Man is out of John Dykstra’s studio.  It will be interesting to compare. 

Blade 2, he repeats, is not for everyone.  It is not this year’s Matrix.  Eighty-five percent of women and 99 percent of people over 40 will hate the film.  (The irony with the ladies is that Blade 2 has a strong romantic component and most women will want to leave long before that component develops.)  Del Toro takes a mélange of genre ideas and images and makes a film that is exactly what comic book lovers might ask for.  (For instance, remember this phrase – “Predator meets Alien meets Nosferatu” – when you see the film.)  The one thing the film doesn’t do is stop to take its bows as it goes along.  But I respect that.  It also never feels like an endless stream of action so intense that you can’t catch your breath.  Both of those factors, plus its audience limitations, keep the film from feeling like one of the mega films.  But it’s quite good for what it is.  And along with The Devil’s Backbone, marks one of the great six-month-release-runs for any director ever. 

Finally, If del Toro wants to direct a dark version of Batman, there could be no better sample reel than Blade 2.  He has set the bar extremely high for Sam Raimi and Spider-Man.

READER OF THE DAY:  No Relation To Alice’s Vera writes:  “Since you have been busy, the following has happened:

1. Harry Knowles is now in charge of Time Warner.
2. AFI has recognized the greatness in both "Pearl Harbor" and "Rollerball" (2002) (2001?)
3. MGM is a major studio again.

.....just kidding, Good to have The Hot Button back!”

E ME:  Whom are you picking for Oscar?  Try to keep the e-mails lean, so I can print as many as possible.